Pam Kragen

Writer

Pam Kragen is a feature writer who specializes in writing human interest, dining, theater and opera stories. She joined the San Diego Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater/opera critic. She is the president and co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera/classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She reports from the U-T's North County office in San Marcos.

Recent Articles

If you can’t get enough of chef Brian Malarkey’s roasted beet salad at Herb & Wood restaurant in Little Italy, an ice cream version went on sale today just five blocks away. Roasted Beets & Humboldt Fog ice cream is one of five specialty flavors available in the month of June at all Salt & Straw...

Willy Wonka’s got nothing on this summer’s San Diego County Fair, which will open a five-week, rainbow-sprinkled run on June 1 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. This year’s fair theme is “How Sweet It Is” and new and longtime vendors have pushed themselves to come up with new chocolate-dipped, unicorn-frosted...

Six years since its last visit to the San Diego Civic Theatre, the epic, evergreen musical “Les Misérables” is showing no signs of wear and tear. A huge cast and orchestra, stellar singers and eye-popping projections and special effects have made the 33-year-old Claude-Michel Schönberg/Alain Boublil...

The first new location of the Prep Kitchen restaurant company, which changed ownership in January, will open next week in the Block C development in San Marcos. Owners Deborah and David Krause purchased the three existing Prep Kitchen restaurants in La Jolla, Del Mar and Little Italy from the Whisknladle...

Brandon Steppe’s life took a sharp turn in 2006 when a 16-year-old neighborhood boy named RayVaughn showed up at his garage music studio and asked to record some raps. Steppe, then an aspiring hip-hop producer, sent RayVaughn on his way but he soon returned, more determined than ever. Steppe offered...

With summer just around the country We rounded up our favorite local burgers (not major chains like In-N-Out) and have listed them alphabetically by neighborhood: Bankers Hill The three B’s make Bankers Hill’s burger central. Balboa Bar & Grill, exploded on the scene three years ago and quickly...

At 2 p.m. May 17, Keith Fournier hit the “post” button on his restaurant’s Facebook page and hoped that his desperate video plea for customers might keep the doors open. After work began in April on the section of Santa Fe Avenue in front of Fournier’s Partake Gastropub, business dropped by half....

When Liliana Hernandez speaks at MiraCosta College’s commencement ceremonies this evening, her words won’t just be for her fellow graduates. The 28-year-old Vista resident will also be speaking to her 6-year-old daughter, Darla Rojas, about how education and hard work have given her hope that she...